Lucifer Furnaces built and shipped a dual-chamber furnace to a company in the Midwest that will use it to heat treat small tool-steel parts in-house in a timely manner. The Red Devil furnace has working dimensions of 12 inches high x 14 inches wide x 18 inches long in both upper and lower chambers. The upper hardening chamber is rated up to 2200°F (1205°C), while the lower convection oven tempers up to 1200°F (650°C).  This unit was customized with a programmable controller with an over-temperature safety system for the upper chamber and a seven-day timer with alarm for audible event notification.

Here is a complete list of all the feature articles – by topic – that appeared in Industrial Heating in 2020. The month each article appeared in is included. All articles are hyperlinked for your convenience.

Lindberg/MPH shipped two gas-fired hardening and tempering furnaces to the manufacturing industry. The large-capacity box furnaces will be used for the normalizing, austenitizing and tempering of forged components. The furnaces can accept a maximum load measuring 6 feet wide x 6 feet deep x 6 feet high, and the actual chamber is larger to provide clearance for parts. The outer-shell sidewalls and floor are constructed from 3/16-inch steel plate. The lining is ceramic-fiber modules that store low amounts of heat and have superior insulating qualities to provide maximum fuel efficiency.

Gasbarre Thermal Processing Systems opened a 7,700-square-foot technical center in Livonia, Mich. The Livonia technical center will house engineering, sales and service personnel. Gasbarre is currently in the process of installing atmosphere and vacuum processing equipment to support product development, customer trials and demonstrations. With locations in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Michigan, the addition of the technical center allows Gasbarre to have qualified personnel to support the large customer base in the Midwest region.

Aluminum was first discovered in the early 1800s and was produced in quantity during the turn of the 20th century using the Hall–Héroult smelting process. Interestingly enough, Carl Benz was patenting his first version of a self-propelled internal-combustion-engine automobile during that same time. During these times, automobiles or horseless carriages were a luxury and difficult for common people to afford.

France’s ECM Group launched ECM Lab Solutions, a division dedicated to helping laboratories develop innovative products and processes by offering advanced furnace technologies under one ECM Group brand. ECM Lab Solutions gathers all products from the ECM Group that are designed for research and development in four main fields: metallurgy and heat treatment, crystal growth, semiconductor and renewable energies.

After the success of a series of virtual seminars last fall, the Industrial Heating Equipment Association (IHEA) has scheduled a virtual Safety Standards & Codes Seminar. Set for April 14-16, the seminar provides a comprehensive review of the 2019 edition of NFPA 86 Standard for Ovens and Furnaces. The agenda for the virtual seminar contains vital topics that have been adapted to an online version so attendees can still get the information they need whether they are working from home or in the office.

Bodycote, the world’s largest provider of specialist thermal-processing services, announced the opening of a new facility in Syracuse, N.Y. The 60,000-square-foot facility is operational and offers a wide range of heat-treatment processes, including vacuum heat treating, atmospheric carburizing, low-pressure carburizing, carbonitriding, ferritic nitrocarburizing, nitriding and aluminum heat treating. The site is working toward securing all major OEM approvals as well as Nadcap accreditation, which it is on the way to achieving.

Thermcraft started doing business in January 1971 from a small warehouse space in downtown Winston-Salem, N.C. From that small startup operation, Thermcraft has progressively grown into an international manufacturer of thermal-processing equipment. The company offers industrial and laboratory furnaces, ovens, high-temperature heating elements, insulation and replacement parts. Thermcraft now resides in a 70,000-square-foot manufacturing and office space located just a few miles from its original location in Winston-Salem, where it all began 50 years ago.

Lucifer Furnaces completed a yearlong contract to deliver 18 AMS 2750-compliant furnaces and ovens to the United States Air Force. Models supplied include heavy-duty single-chamber furnaces, dual-chamber furnace/oven combinations, recirculating convection ovens and dual ovens. All models are designed and built to comply with AMS 2750 Class 2 (+/-10°F) and Class 5 (+/-25°F) specifications with instrumentation package D, which includes digital paperless recorder/controllers, high-limit safety systems and SCR power supplies. TUS and SAT access ports are built in for ongoing system accuracy tests and temperature uniformity survey compliance. All models are completely wired and temperature uniformity surveyed in-house prior to shipment.